A conveyor comprising a plurality of segments, which is provided with a means, which indicates a possible deviation of the segments from the straight line after the moving back of the conveyor together with progressive reduction in mining, is known from the patent DE 1 262 945. This means consists of a tensioned wire cable, which is functionally connected to measuring points arranged at the segments and these measuring points indicate to a monitoring person the extent of the deviations from the straight line. This measurement may then bring about a correction of the position of the respective segment, so that all segments are in a line with the necessary accuracy at the end of the alignment process.
Furthermore, a conveyor bridge traveling on crawler traveling gears (continuous track or crawler track vehicle propulsion), which comprises a plurality of segments, is known from the U.S. Pat. No. 6,155,400. It is equipped with a conveyor belt that is guided over the entire length of the conveyor bridge. The individual segments are connected to one another in an articulated manner and will travel by a certain extent simultaneously during a moving process. The moving takes place with untensioned conveyor belt. When traveling in a straight line and in curves, it is not possible, in spite of a synchronous control of the drives for the crawler traveling gears on an uneven subsoil, to achieve that all segments move in a line jointly during the moving process. In order not to permit excessively great deviations from the ideal line between the individual segments, the angle deviations from one another are measured by sensors. If a maximum preset deviation is exceeded, the drives are so affected that a correction of their positions in relation to one another is brought about by reducing the speed or by stopping the hurrying ahead section and/or an acceleration of the speed or a moving on of the section that has remained behind. After reaching the end positions of the two outer sections, a fine alignment of the inner sections is made. Then follows a tensioning of the conveyor belt. After that, the conveyor bridge can be operated again. This solution is not suitable for a pivoting of the entire conveyor bridge by 180°, since the differentiated control of the two outer sections necessary for this is not guaranteed.
It is known from a plurality of literature sources to use the Global Positioning System (GPS) in opencast mining to determine the positions of large apparatuses. Thus, e.g., in the technical journal BRAUNKOHLE—Surface-Mining, vol. 48 (1996), No. 4, July/August, pages 413 to 421 under the title “SATAMA—Automated Opencast Site Measuring by Means of High-Precision Real-Time GPS Measurements on Bucket Wheel Excavators,” it is disclosed how the excavated masses can be determined by the progression of mining by an extraction apparatus on opencast mining terrain. Moreover, the Global Positioning System (GPS) is in the meantime used aside from pure survey use in opencast mining in the operating technique there as well. The applications extend from automatic documentation of the respective positions of the apparatuses, monitoring and disposition of their movements up to support of the control tasks of these apparatuses. An overall view is given in the same technical journal BRAUNKOHLE—Surface-Mining, vol. 52 (2000), No. 5, September/October, pages 469 to 479 under the title, “GPS—State of the Art and Its Applications in the Mining Industry.”
In the patent DE 10 2004 040 394 A1, the application of the Global Positioning System (GPS) in a generalized manner is provided for the control of a conveyor bridge comprising a plurality of segments for the control of the two outer segments, wherein the traveling gear of one segment is the master traveling gear and the traveling gear of the other segment is the slave traveling gear, which follows the segment with the master traveling gear. The segments arranged between them are moved approximately at the same speed. Due to unevennesses of the subsoil and other external effects, the individual segments do not form a straight line in their entire line direction in relation to one another during the moving process. This joint moving back proves to be even more difficult when the entire conveyor bridge shall be moved in a curved path. The necessary correction of all segments in relation to one another is only performed when the end positions were reached with the two outer segments.